As a pleasant surprise, my girlfriend decided to pick me up some dinner from the California Chicken Cafe. They were supposed to have some great rotisserie chicken, so before she picked up, I took a look at the menu to figure out what to order. Since just about everything on the menu began with the word “chicken,” I was pretty happy. I decided to go with the 1/4 chicken (breast and wing) plus one side. Picking out a side was probably the easiest thing I’ve done since graduating elementary school. Of the 12 sides, only two were unvegan-friendly. These were the mashed potatoes and the fresh fruit salad. Feeling in a strongly savory mood, I decided on the mashed potatoes.

After not-too-long, my girlfriend arrived with my food in hand. I opened the styrofoam lid and was surprised to find such a small amount of food. It was nice to see no vegetables present, but I was amazed by the amount of empty space. I remember a time when ordering 1/4 chicken meant you were getting a lot of food, but not in this case. Size aside, the chicken looked pretty tasty. The skin was glistening and looked crispy, so I started eating. It tasted pretty good and wasn’t too salty like a lot of rotisserie chicken can be. Underneath the chicken, I found a quarter of a pita. I wasn’t totally sure what it was doing there, as this chicken didn’t exactly seem ready to be sliced up and put into a pita. Due to the lack of lots of food, I still ate the pita in whatever way I could. The mashed potatoes were pretty good, but nothing really special. Next time, I may have to grab the fruit salad instead.

Ultimately, the California Chicken Cafe wasn’t a disappointing meal. I should have guessed by the price that I wouldn’t be getting a lot of food and the chicken did taste pretty good. In the end, though, I was still hungry and that was a damn shame.

For a pre-movie dinner, I found myself at the Century City food court once again and looking for something new. Some of the competitors in the food court have found the best way to bring in new customers: sampling.

I will sample almost anything put in front of me, as long as it has no vegetable qualities. You wouldn’t buy a car without giving it a test drive, so why buy a meal without knowing how it will taste? Well obviously, this isn’t always possible, but when it is I think it’s great to take advantage.

The Rotisserie Works offered me a sample of their Hawaiian BBQ chicken and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a nice sweet BBQ taste with the hint of some pineapple-like fruit. After a few other tastes, I decided the Hawaiian chicken would be filling my belly that evening. The order of chicken came with two sides, and I looked at the menu with mild distaste. All but two of the sides had words like “squash,” and “spinach,” so I ordered their mashed potatoes and mac and cheese.

The guy behind the counter scooped out dollops of all my dishes, and I was please to see he wasn’t stingy. In fact, my plate ended up having sides bigger than the main course. This is not to say that the main course was small, just that the sides were even bigger.

I started eating and really enjoyed. The sides, although nothing amazing, complemented the Hawaiian chicken. As I continued eating, I became increasingly happy with the sizes of the sides, because the Hawaiian chicken became a little too sweet, but the sides were always there to bail me out. Herein lies the only trouble with ordering a food based on a sample. The initial taste might be great, but it could become increasingly intense. For a big example of this, read up on the Pepsi Challenge.

No doubt my meal was an enjoyable one, only not as good as I had hoped upon first sampling.